However, I do like the idea of adding new songs and automatically updating a playlist. how are playlists created on the empeg. I'm sorry, I just don't know much about that stuff, not owning one and all...

This talk about "automatically updating a playlist" is a non-issue with the Empeg. The way you organize the playlists on the unit is so simple that you don't need any special automatic system. It's very powerful and flexible, but also very simple to use.

On the Empeg (in the Emplode software), playlists appear just like Windows folders. There is a virtual "directory structure", with "Empeg-Car" at the top (representing everything in the unit), and as many subdirectories (playlists) as you like. When you add a new song to the unit, you do so by dragging the file from the Windows explorer and dropping it onto the desired playlist.

Creating new playlists in Emplode is just as easy as creating new folders in Windows. If I remember correctly, you can even drag a whole folder from Windows onto Emplode and it will automatically create a playlist for you with the name of that folder. Although I've never done it that way, so I'm not sure.

When you copy songs between different playlists within the Emplode software, it doesn't make a duplicate of the song file, it just adds another entry to the playlist. That way you don't take up extra disk space by having a song in more than one playlist.

The playlists are fully hierarchical, just like Windows folders. If you play a playlist that has several sub-playlists, it will play all of the songs in all of the sub-playlists.

There is one special playlist called "unattached items". Songs in this list are simply files that don't exist in any other playlist. If, for example, you get a system crash during a big upload, the portion of the files that were uploaded before the crash will appear in that folder, and you can move them to the proper playlists without having to upload them again.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144